What's The Worst Cooking Mistake You've Made?

[Amberle3]

The first year I was married we had Thanksgiving at our house. That went fine so I thought I could be really domestic and make homemade turkey soup from the leftovers. Well I boiled the rest of the turkey off the bone just fine and decided to strain it. I put the strainer in the sink and began to pour the broth into it. Right after I started pouring I realized I never put a bowl under the strainer and I had just poured my broth down the drain!!

Oh, forgot about that one. That was my first soup-making experience too. I'm still traumatized.

 

[browneyes]

If I serve hotdogs, you might want to double check to make sure the buns aren't green. I sometimes forget to check (I don't eat the buns ).

 

[carole88]

A couple of things come to mind.

When I was a kid, about 11 or 12, I made a cake using a mix. I couldn't figure out why they two cake rounds were flat as pancakes. My DD and I went over all of the ingredients and it turned out that I left out the eggs. The cakes were so hard, I could have used them as frisbees.

I also found out, like a previouse poster, that if you leave cooking oil in the frying pan on heat that is too high it will ignite. I couldn't believe how the pan went up in flames. In a matter of seconds, the whole house was a big smoke ball.

Another story that my MIL and I were just talking about a couple of weeks ago happened to her at least 10 years ago. She is an excellent Italian cook (from Italy). She makes the most delicious three color cookies. After she baked the three individual cakes, she placed the pans of the tile floor to cool since all of her counter space was taken up. Wouldn't you know it, my SIL came into the kitchen without looking where she was walking and stepped right into the red cake layer. We all looked at each other, at first in shock, and then we started laughing hysterically. Eventually my MIL used the red layer anyway. After the cookies were assembled, nobody was the wiser and they were still delicious!

 

[sha_lyn]

Right now I can only think of a very recent one. I bought a bag of the Pillsbury frozen biscuits. Decided to cook and and put it on the rack of the toaster oven, without a pan. I don't know what I was thinking. A few minutes later I smell smoke and find that the biscuit had fallen partway through the rack. The top was raw and the bottom burnt to a crisp.
Oh another biscuit mistake. I learned to make biscuits from scratch from my grandmother had had been making them since I was 10 or so. Well when my ex and I were married I tried to cook biscuits one day. I still have no idea what I did wrong, but they were hard tough and flat. I had self rising flour so no need to add baking powder. I just don't know what happened.

 

[torianne31]

I was making a thai steak salad one time several years ago that called for fresh cilantro. Well, it was my first time using cilantro and I didn't know if I was supposed to use the green leafy end for the 2 tsp chopped cilantro or the bottom ends. I used the bottom ends. It was soooooo strong and nasty!! I can not eat foods with cilantro in it to this day.

 

[TheDuckMan]

My brother and I were cooking bacon in the oven and didnt think about it dripping grease and put it on a cookie sheet. When I saw it was burning I tried to put it out with water and all that did was make the flames shoot out of the oven and up to the shelves above and it finally went out. I also have burnt chocolate chip cookies warming them up in the microwave and my apt filled with smoke.

 

[MariettaC]

Okay, now don't tell my DIL but it was her mistake. We were having Thanksgiving dinner and since my DH and I were very busy working we needed the help of our children to prepare dinner. My DIL says she's not a good cook so I gave her the instant mashed potatoes to fix. Everything is just about ready and we're looking for the potatoes. My DIL asks me to look at the pot and tell her what's wrong. Instead of mashed potatoes we had soupy potatoes. She had read the instructions wrong too much water and not enough potato. We had dinner without them.

 

[rkrivas]

When I was 12, I made steak for my sister and I in the broiler. I didn't take the paper off the bottom of the steak from the packaging and of course I freaked when it caught on fire!

My mother had a funny mistake one Thanksgiving. She made home-made mashed potatoes earlier in the day and then put them in the oven to keep them warm. They liquified (when I first saw them, I thought she had made applesauce!) and then she made matters worse by trying to add instant mashed potatoes to the mush.

 

[Lorix2]

Well, I set my shirt on fire while cooking, does that count?

I reached over the stove while boiling water in a pot on one of those coiled electric ranges and my shirt touched it and went up in flames, luckily the sink was to my right and I pulled the shirt under the running water. I wasn't hurt, but my kids cried they were so scared. It's a big joke now around here

 

[wfloyd]

One of my roommates in college decided to make Ramen noodles for dinner in the microwave. He was from out of the country and couldn't understand the directions all that well. So he put the noodles in a tupperware dish and stuck it in the microwave for 10 minutes. About 2 minutes later I start to smell smoke and it took a while to register it was coming from our room. Turns out the dish melted, causing all sorts of excitement in the dorm. The noodles were fine though, but he didn't try cooking them again.

 

[BrinxFam]

When I was 16 or 17 I was trying to make dinner, as I often did for my parents before I went to work. I put it in the oven and left for work. As I was driving I kept thinking about the lasagna I had just put in the oven and couldn't remember putting the noodles in it. Well, guess what I forgot them! They just boiled some noodles and put my "lasagna" over the top of them but goodness was I embarrassed!

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

I tried to make sugar cookies once..followed the recipe in my cookbook,too. I have NO idea what happened..they turned out flat and looked a little like really crispy crepes.

I also managed to once set a toaster on fire making PopTarts. I guess it was turned up too high or something because I put them in and next thing I know,flames are shooting out of the toaster.

I have also tried to make homemade pizza dough and it doesn't turn out all that well. Last time I did it I had a goopy,floury,eggy mess all over the counter.

TOV

 

[KMH1]

When I was 11 or 12, I thought I'd surprise my parents with breakfast in bed. I used oil to grease the pan for pancakes, and I didn't know you shouldn't run water on hot oil (I thought I was being efficient by cleaning up too!).

Anyway, the ruckus I created woke up my parents and scared me to death! The oil splattered everywhere and my dad had to repaint the area above the sink. I had a little burn on my nose too.

Amy

 

[snoopy]

The worst mistake I ever made was when I had to make potato salad for a company picnic. THis mean woman was in charge, and she told me I had to make it, and I was too young and stupid to tell her a) I don't like potato salad, and therefore b) don't know how to make it. Anyway, I did end up making it, I think I called my mom for the recipe. It all looked fine the night before, and I put foil over it. When we arrived at the picnic, I went to uncover my dish, lo and behold, the potato salad had turned BLACK! OMG! My boss, who I had a history of sharing looooooooong giggles with, started cracking up and so of course I started cracking up too. The nasty woman made a beeline across the room to see what we were laughing about, and I just turn and ran out of there with my potato salad.

Turns out if you don't let the potatos cool they turn black.

 

[sha_lyn]

Turns out if you don't let the potatos cool they turn black

I always make my potato salad while they are still hot. They soak up the flavors more.
How strange that it turned black. Was the dish tightly covered

The ramen noodle story reminds me of DS. He's been cooking sinple things,for himself on "fend for yourself" days since he was about 11 or 12. Well last yr he was in a hurry ahnd forgot to put the water in the bowl with the noodles. After about 2 minute in the microwave they started smoking. Dry ramen noodles make a lot of smoke.

 

[stinkerbelle]

I've never started a fire in the kitchen...a bit of smoke...but never fire. DH presented me with a fire extinguisher as a housewarming present when we first moved into together. heheh (He's now a volunteer fire fighter...so no worries of burning the house down)

I've made brownies that never got "firm" enough to cut neatly, burnt cookies (it was the new pan I tell ya! I wasn't used to it!), realized halfway through a cooking process that the baked ziti is in too small of a pan, under cooked chicken (didn't serve it), called my mom at age 28 to ask her how long to cook a whole chicken for, forgot to set the timer correctly on my veggie steamer (why is this broccoli still cold?!) but I think the funniest thing was my first pancake experience in college.

My roommate and I and some guys from a few houses down (we lived in on campus town houses) decided to cook a big breakfast and eat at our place (the cleanest of course). The guys made omelets/scrambled eggs/bacon/sausage/brought juice...we were in charge of coffee/pancakes.

Of course we didn't own a griddle...so we had to borrow that from one of the guys. then...how many eggs does this need? borrowed some eggs...

of course on campus housing is not perfect...nor are the appliances. every time we poured a pancake out...it would run to one side of the griddle.

30 minutes later the guys show up...and I'll never forget the look on my friends face when he looked at the griddle, the stack of 2 pancakes and said "it took you 30 minutes...to make 3 pancakes?"

and DH today doesn't understand why I love his pancakes best...because I'M NOT MAKING THEM! Thank god DH is a fantastic cook...he makes a MEAN turkey!

 

[Amberle3]

Just remembered one. We were doing tempura at home (in the wok). Turned out nicely. For whatever reason I was in a hurry to clean up afterward and looked around for a container to pour the oil into.

Just as a hint - don't pour hot oil into a plastic container. The next thing I knew it had melted through the container and was running all over the counter and dripping down the cabinets and onto the floor. That wasn't fun to clean up either.

 

[stm61]

this was about 20 yrs ago and I still remember the smell! I was making corned beef and cabbage for an old bf. He called and said he'd be there in about 1/2 hr. I was working nights and was pretty tired so I decided to let the cabbage cook on low and go take a nap. I figured he'd wake me up when he got there-anybody see where this is going? Yup, he decided to let me sleep and then fell asleep himself. We both woke up when the smoke alarm went off. The house stunk for a week!

 

[MamaLema]

I was trying to "toast" peppercorns. It was a bright idea I got from watching Food Network. I forgot about them until the noxious fumes hit us and we all started coughing and our lungs were on fire. This was actually just within the last 6 months or so.

Sorry to laugh at your expense, but I'm killing myself here with laughter imaging that

 

[minniecarousel]

I tried to microwave a corned beef - yuk! Turned out to be a brick!